Articles

Articles and analyses from the INET community on the key economic questions of our time.

Article

Surprise: The 1% Is Overrepresented in the Ivy League

Aug 11, 2017

New research shows that access to elite colleges varies by parents’ income—reinforcing inequality across generations 

Article

Jim Chanos: U.S. Economy is Worse Than You Think

Jun 30, 2017

The famed short-seller offers a mid-2017 reality check for “fake fiscal news,” and economic pipe dreams, and sees “portents of even worse things”

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We’ll Always Need Paris

Jun 29, 2017

Faced with rapid cost reductions for clean electricity generation, some commentators suggest that we no longer need the Paris agreement or other policy interventions, because technology alone can solve all problems.

Article

The New Normal

May 19, 2017

Demand, Secular Stagnation and the Vanishing Middle-Class

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Which Productivity Puzzle?

Apr 3, 2017

The decline in productivity growth has a longer history

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A Public Comment on the SEC Pay Ratio Disclosure Rule

Mar 29, 2017

In this comment, we explain our objections to the SEC’s current formulation of the Pay Ratio Disclosure Rule on each of three grounds: the erroneous estimation of CEO pay; the unclear specification of the “median” worker; and the risk of normalizing a pay ratio that is far too high. Then we present the latest data on the remuneration of the 500 highest-paid CEOs in the United States, demonstrating the way in which the SEC’s measure of CEO pay that enters into the CEO-to-median-worker pay ratio tends to systematically underestimate actual executive pay.

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Dismantling Public Education: Turning Ideology into Gold

Mar 1, 2017

Policies based on faith in the “market” as a principle of social organization have wrought havoc with a founding principle of American democracy

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China's Wage Growth: How Fast Is the Gain and What Does It Mean?

Feb 28, 2017

New findings show that hourly wage-rates in China are higher than in middle-income countries and are approaching the levels of Greece and Portugal

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Zero Interest Rates in EU: The Myth of the Poor German Saver

Feb 7, 2017

Panic over the impact on  German savers of low interest rates and looming inflation neglects to mention that very few Germans are saving much